Now, what is this? Well, the 6th assignment, of course! Let's look at the blog topic assignment.
" Using McLuhan's "Tetrad of Media" (see diagram above), choose a medium or media application or tool (e.g. newspaper, books, radio, tv, film, internet, computer games, handphone, instant messaging, blogging, online advertising, youtube, facebook etc.) and explain its media effects? Please refer to Week 9's lecture notes plus your own research to discuss this topic. "
There we go. The medium I'm gonna pick to use the tetrad to explain with, is...
So why facebook? Because I'm most familliar with it, and my close close friends know I'm 24/7 on facebook, ha ha ha~
Anyway, here's the definition i got from wikipedia regarding tetrad of media :
Generally speaking, a tetrad is any set of four things. In Laws of MediaThe Global Village (1989), published posthumously, Marshall McLuhan summarized his ideas about media in a concise tetrad of media effects. The tetrad is a means of examining the effects on society of any technology/medium (put another way: a means of explaining the social processes underlying the adoption of a technology/medium) by dividing its effects into four categories and displaying them simultaneously. McLuhan designed the tetrad as a pedagogical tool, phrasing his laws as questions with which to consider any medium:
- What does the medium enhance?
- What does the medium make obsolete?
- What does the medium retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
- What does the medium flip into when pushed to extremes?
The laws of the tetrad exist simultaneously, not successively or chronologically, and allow the questioner to explore the "grammar and syntax" of the "language" of media. McLuhan departs from his mentor Harold Innis in suggesting that a medium "overheats", or reverses into an opposing form, when taken to its extreme.
Visually, a tetrad can be depicted as four diamonds forming an X, with the name of a medium in the center. The two diamonds on the left of a tetrad are the Enhancement and Retrieval qualities of the medium, both Figure qualities. The two diamonds on the right of a tetrad are the Obsolescence and Reversal qualities, both Ground qualities.
- Enhancement (figure): What the medium amplifies or intensifies. For example, radio amplifies news and music via sound.
- Obsolescence (ground): What the medium drives out of prominence. Radio reduces the importance of print and the visual.
- Retrieval (figure): What the medium recovers which was previously lost. Radio returns the spoken word to the forefront.
- Reversal (ground): What the medium does when pushed to its limits. Acoustic radio flips into audio-visual TV.
With this piece of information, I can explain much easier.
1) What does FACEBOOK extend/enhance?
Facebook amplifies networking and connectivity between friends, family and new friends through the internet, as a social website. By using facebook, friends and family can now keep in contact with each other, through the internet, without being charged (excluding internet and broadband charge, that is, but hey, it's much easier than travelling house by house to talk to each other, or waste $$$ by talking on the phone right?). Also, we can also know one's status, and what they did or went with facebook, because facebook has the function to upload photos, writing on the wall to each other, and even in notes to show what you think/ponder about as well.
2) What does FACEBOOK make obsolete?
As mentioned, by using Facebook, one does not need to call each other up and waste phone credits anymore, as by using facebook, you can chat like an instant messenger, and you can upload events/parties so your friends/family in ur network knows about it to attend, and you can use the invite function as well!), neither does one have to waste car/petrol to go house by house to visit and be sure that they're alright and still friends, as there's the photo uploading option for you to upload photos of urself! Although there is a bad part; we won't be able to face each other and "yumcha" in front of each other, person-to-person that much. physical contact is much less.
3) What does FACEBOOK retrieve/retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
Connectivity and closeness, as well as keep-to-update-ness of friends and family, and also new friends. We can still be close and keep in touch and keep updated on each other using Facebook, without walking or phoning each other up. We may not ask each other every single thing needed to know in real life/person-to-person, but one may retrieve more information on a friend/family member by using facebook as we tend to "update" more using the internet, mainly, facebook. Example, parties he/she went to, when did he/she broke up, etc etc.
4th) What does FACEBOOK flip into when pushed to extremes/reverse into if it is over extended?
Facebook might be the one and only social networking that people use (actually it kind of already is, iphone and maxis promotes facebook - a lot). Maybe one day, Facebook will have webcamming/voice chatting functions, that would make the feeling of not hearing/seeing someone decrease bit by bit. Who knows...
PERSONAL REFLECTION!
Well, there was the video on Power of Nightmare 3 - not the type of videos I would watch, but it does make sense. Almost fell asleep watching it.... Is there any better examples/movies like it?
No comments:
Post a Comment